Just go as hard as you can: Tom Dumoulin takes on the Zoncolan

Just go as hard as you can: Tom Dumoulin takes on the Zoncolan

The hardest climb of the Giro d'Italia is also the simplest. Monte Zoncolan has the steepest gradients of any ascent on the corsa rosa, but its severity rather reduces its complexity. For Tom Dumoulin ( Sunweb ), at least, the strategy for the Kaiser is a brutally simple one: just go as hard as you can. After stalking maglia rosa Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) up the final climb in Osimo on stage 11, Dumoulin jokingly pointed at his legs and said, "what people don't know is that I'm quite explosive sometimes." That breathless duel between the first and second riders on general classification had the feel of a prelude to a more prolonged battle on the Zoncolan this weekend, though Dumoulin noted that the two efforts are not comparable. Compared to the deft sparring in Osimo, the Zoncolan promises to be a slugging match. "It has nothing to do about explosiveness, ...